This semester has flown by for me. A lot of newsworthy events have happened that the Miami Herald covered over the course of this semester. I decided that I would finish the semester the way I started it, by reviewing a music article. However to my dismay, there were no music articles that I found intriguing or on the home page of the entertainment section. I would once again like to point out that if the Herald wants a younger reader audience they need to write articles for that demographic. 

This article was interesting because Mike Piazza, a Major League baseball player was rehearing with the Miami City Ballet. I was solely drawn to this article because it was about ballet. I was a former dancer once so I like reading about any type of dance. The article once again was well written. It was a great feature story and I was able to pick out the nut graph and follow the order that Professor Lowe uses when we write in an inverted pyramid style. It utilized a great antidotal lead. I was impressed with my assigned publication for the first time all semester.

This publication used a video that was well shot and was actually interesting for the first time all semester. The article was actually two pages long, instead of a really brief piece like they usually produce. I believe it was longer than the article I reviewed about the presidential Inauguration. The Herald is progressing a little bit with each month. I feel that they still have a long way to go when it comes to writing for the web and utilizing different multimedia elements with their stories. 

The Miami Herald was able to produce an original article, consider this journalist shocked. When I went to look up an article about the bombing in Boston I was not expecting to find an article written by someone on staff at the Herald. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the author was paid by the publication and it did not simply just pull the story from somewhere else.

I still do not enjoy they layout it picked for their photos that correspond with the article. I am interested in photography and if used properly, photos add a vivd defining key element to enhance a story. This particular publication still struggles deeply with their multimedia. The following photos just list names and it does not provide me with much context as to why I am staring at two scary looking individuals. I wish an editor would have had my same stand and provided us with a better caption.

The overal story itself was intriguing. It is no surprise that it is well written. However, the story is lackluster. I was very intrigued by what had happened in Boston. There was a lot of different elements that made this a very action packed exciting yet horrendous attack. There was so much hype revolving around the bombing and this is the story my publication produces?
I had to stop reading it because I was bored to tears and it gave me a headache. 

This story may have been more tolerable if someone on staff of the Herald added a video to accompany the piece or a gallery of intriguing photos. The piece alone with the small side bar of photos is absolutely boring. Journalism this day in age has changed. We can do much more to tell a story effectively and in an interesting manor. I am unsure why my assigned publication cannot grasp that idea and run with it. If they are not ready to run with it, at least try and limp away with multimedia. It is clear to me that this newspaper is far behind the rest, but one day I hope they enter the digital media age.

On Wednesday April 10, 2013 Mira Lowe senior features editor for CNN Digital took time out of her schedule to visit #Loweclass and speak about running CNN'S feature sections, as well as other various information about CNN. 

The week before the anticipated visit of Mira Lowe, we were assigned to review the different sections of CNN Digital that she was in charge of. It was humbling to me that she would take the time to read all of our blog posts and value our feedback. When I compared CNN's overall online presence to my assigned beat, it blew the Miami Herald out of the water. CNN uses an engaging layout and vibrant colors to appeal to a younger audience. 

The two most popular sections are the entertainment and travel sections. She explained to us about the gender breakdown of designers and writers from each section. The class was surprised when we all guessed wrong. She talked in depth about design and layout. She also spoke to #Loweclass about blogs. 

Since blogging is a major aspect of Digital Journalism III it was important she discussed to us about how CNN handles blogs. CNN has quiet a few different blogs. I found the Marquee blog the most entertaining. This Just In blog is CNN's way of producing news fast. They also have a faith blog which I found unique because a lot of different publications have issues writing on the topic of faith. I think CNN has really figured out their online presence and is striving ahead of the others.

Mira Lowe seems like she has been in charge of CNN Digital for a long time. However, she has only been working as a senior features editor for CNN for only a year. She was such an inspiration to have in class. It was a wake up call to me, because she made me realize the importance of blogging and showed me how successful I can be if I work hard. 

For this assignment we were asked to evaluate Professor Lowe's wife Mira Lowe who is the senior editor of features for CNN Digital. She is directly in charge of the entertainment, tech,health,living and travel pages for the website. I liked the different layouts of the pages. I saw more broad stories in the entertainment section unlike at the Herald who posts stories about local shows or other events centered in Miami. I enjoy reading about celebrities and CNN does a nice job of fulfilling that desire.

I was a little confused as to why the tech page was the only one that had a different layout. It leaves the reader with the question of why does this page have to look different from the rest? This is a bad design flaw on CNN's part. It also has a different layout from the home page. I know professor Lowe is a stickler for uniformity across the board, I am curious as to how he feels about the different layout of this page. 

Overall I prefer CNN to my assigned beat for the semester. However, this win over my beat should not be celebrated. In regards to the two publications it would be Michael Jordan playing Sheldon Cooper in a game of horse. Almost any publication can out do the Herald because my beat is seriously struggling with their online presence. CNN is well organized and clever. The Herald is lack luster, dull, and boring. I think overall CNN writes interesting articles. In the travel page there is an article about pot, the health page has articles about Viagra. I would never see articles about risqué topics such as that in my beat.

The Miami Herald wrote numerous articles about this past Sunday's Easter celebration. This year I was not able to celebrate Easter by going to mass due to my father's illness from Cancer. Therefore, I found it interesting to read different articles about people celebrating Easter around the world. This particular story is centered in Baghdad. 

There are many Christians in the middle east and they are being persecuted for their faith. The article had many vivid photos to add to the depth of the piece. Each photo had different angles and used different photography elements to tell a compelling story about faith. However, I did not like that they switched between landscape and portrait photos. I think it looks cleaner to keep all photos the same way instead of switching between different layouts. The text story was compelling this time.

Instead of a lack luster short piece of slop, the Herald published a story that was worth reading. Unfortunately, for this publication they did not write it. This whole story was written by Diaa Hadid from the Associated Press. I was impressed by the article but I did not like how it focused on the negatives of Christianity. 

The author decided to include information and photos about the causalities of Christians in different middle eastern countries. Death is not what Easter is about. Easter is about the resurrection of Christ and new life. I was upset and slightly disturbed about the photos of individuals being searched before they entered mass. This article could have stood on its own without this element to the story. I felt it took away from the true message of Easter Sunday. 

The Miami Herald has a variety of different videos on their website. However, you had to scroll all the way down to the bottom of the web page to access the multimedia section. One of the top videos is about a LED light panels that collapsed at Ultra Music Festival. In my digital journalism class we talked endlessly about clean audio and clear images. This video is lacking in both aspects of digital journalism.

The video's audio is full of natural sound. Natural sound if used correctly adds to the audio and provides context clues. In this particular video the audio and natural sound work against each other to create wind fighting over the man's voice.The audio is not clean and it sounds unprofessional. The visuals in the video are very blurry. It leaves me to wonder if it was shot on a phone and not a professional video camera. Reporting using mobile devices can be very useful, but in this case it makes the Herald seem unprofessional and not prepared to conduct this interview. The placement of the video also leads the viewer to believe that it is not breaking news in Miami. 

This video was buried under all the other content on the websites main page. The video coverage from the newspaper is not even in competition with the other publications because of how poor the content and quality is. The video gallery presence is slim. Some of the videos are from citizen journalists who are shooting video footage on the scene and that's it. There is no reporting or interviewing. When there is reporting or interviewing it is lack luster. 

In High School, I had two best friends. Their names are Gabrielle Levato and Raquel Novak. We stayed best friends all four years. We were very close friends. I knew their families really well. When I walked into their homes, it was like walking into my own front door. I knew the names of all their siblings and how old they were. The three of us graduated and said our goodbyes as all high school friends do. They both went to University of Illinois and I went to Marquette University. We grew apart but our bond was always present in my heart. In August, everything changed for my friend Raquel.

On August 18, 2012, Raquel's little brother Alex Novak was struck by a car when he was biking blocks from home. He suffered severe brain injuries that left him in a coma for six weeks. In order to take in nutrients he is fed through a feeding tube because he is unable to swallow on his own. He has to breathe trough a tracheal tube. These are only a few of the many medical problems this young boy is facing. He was about to enter his freshman year of high school at Saint Francis.

Naturally, with an accident such as this one, many local news publications picked up the story. I was deeply impressed by the care each publication took when it came time to write the stories. 

The coverage of the Daily Herald was beautiful and touching. I can not imagine what it would be like to report about something so tragic happening to someone so young. The photos the publication chose brought insight to how many people care. I especially like the candid shot that I posted above. The older gentleman is the football coach of the high school. 

Since this article, there was a recent article about his road to recovery. I felt it necessary to address the care that these publications used when writing the pieces on Alex Novak. 

Each day I pray for his recovery and that his family stays strong. It is hard to imagine that the little kid I went to Six Flags with is not jumping or running around anymore. He is one of the strongest boys I have had the pleasure of meeting. 

The Miami Herald confirmed the rumored Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z tour in its article on Thursday. I wanted to write a positive blog post about the Herald's article. However, it fell short of my expectations. 

The article was separated into seven short sections. I call them sections because each one is not long enough to be considered a paragraph. Each section was well written and followed all the journalistic grammar rules or AP Style. The problem was the article was so brief. 

This piece is the newspapers top story for music in the entertainment section. This piece is so short, I would not consider it to be an article. I am sure there are longer more entertaining articles that are worthy to hold the title of top article. Not only is the piece lackluster and brief, it is also dated. This story is at least three days old. 

In order for newspaper organizations to stay in business, it is helpful to embrace their online presence. This being said, it is important that it updates it's online content regularly. A top article that is three days old is not helping to bring positive attention to their online presence. However, the photo that accompanies the article is fantastic.

In this candid photo both artists look happy to be on stage together performing at the Grammys'. The background provides contrast and the audience's arms add context to when and where the photo was taken. My issue is, it was not taken by anyone on staff at the publication that ran this photo. I find it strange that no one in the Herald had any photos to use to accompany this piece. It also dates the article as well. It almost feels as if the photo was chosen because both Jay-Z and Justin Timberlake was in it.

The content of the article is all grammatically correct. However, the middle two paragraphs have a style error that I do not care for. It follows a layout of, then this happened and this happened. I have been taught ways to avoid writing in that manner. I am sure journalists with professional training know how to avoid writing in that context. 

The last paragraph in the photo above is attempting to present ideas as facts to add hype to this tour. It is in the best interest not to over generalize statements when they may not be true. The wording used as well make it seem that the author is unsure of what he or she is saying. Words such as may or could provide uncertainty and reduce the validity of the piece. 

The article also tries to add too much information in such a short story. This article is supposed to be about confirming Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z's tour together. It is important that the author included ticket sales and when the concert is. I do not find adding information about Beyonce's concert to the article important. It does not benefit the article, it appears as a filler. 

I do enjoy Jay-Z's music and was excited about reading any news regarding him. This article fell short of my expectations. 

The Miami Herald wrote a decent profile on Modeline Antoine. She is a student with huge aspirations to become part of the law enforcement. Her story is slightly inspiring because she came over from Haiti and lived with her aunt until her mother was able to come to America too.

This profile does a great job of providing insight into Antoine's character. It discusses her aspirations and paints out her personal struggles, instead of simply stating them. Sometimes it can be difficult to find interesting things about someone's personality, but this profile does with ease. This article does the two things a profile should do. A profile needs to focus on the person and work. It provides context about Antoine's life and her career aspirations.

In regards to profile writing this article would receive an A. However, one element of profile writing was missed in regards to this particular profile. "Why does it matter?" is a question that is always asked when writing a story. As a journalist it is their sole duty to provide the reader with enough context to show why this story or person is important.

This profile shows a motivated women with a difficult past. As a reader I was left wondering why is she so important? My question was not answered at all through the whole article. I still do not understand why she was picked for a profile.

The photo they used of her is not a good representation of her character. It does not represent the article in a positive manner. She looks like she is going to attend a party at a nightclub instead of a strong professional law enforcement business woman. 

There were no unique or interesting facts about her in the profile anywhere. All I learned from this profile is that she worked hard as a student and now has her dream job. She also loves her boyfriend and her friends. In all honesty, this sounds more like a normal college student than anything else. I am still waiting to know why this woman is so special.

The coverage of this years Super Bowl is not very impressive. I do appreciate the scores being updated so someone like me who is not watching the Super Bowl knows who is winning. Which by the way is currently the Ravens. I think it is annoying that the Miami Herald is only live tweeting this event right now and some of the tweets they picked to use are pointless.
I did however learn that the power has gone out in some parts of the Super Dome and that one of the fans watching the game believes this would not happen in Houston. He is obviously a Cowboys fan. The tweets were not being monitored at all either.

Some of the tweets that were streaming were rude and offensive. Someone on the Herald staff should have been monitoring that. Also, the tweets were not grammatically correct and words were spelled incorrectly. This did not add to the publications credibility. In the long run this most likely hurt the newspaper. 

There has been nothing covering the Super Bowl before the game like some other websites do. I was interested in Beyonce's half time performance and nobody had anything useful to say about it since I was not able to watch it. I would have liked to know what songs she sang and who performed with her.

Sadly no one posted anything that answered those questions for me. People just commented on how she looked and how many Beyonces were there on stage with her. I feel like this is going to be a super depressing beat assignment. I was blessed last semester. I guess it's true what people say, "you don't get lucky twice."